


Where the Light Gets In

by HighKingMargo



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-05 02:10:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17909984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HighKingMargo/pseuds/HighKingMargo
Summary: Chloe’s words sounded…genuine. Not like Lucifer’s. Not a postscript on her desire for somebody else.When Maze comes back to the apartment in 3x21, things go a little differently.





	Where the Light Gets In

When Mazikeen came back to the apartment she’d shared with Chloe for damn near a year, where she’d learned to express care and concern for the woman before claiming she was sick of her, where she’d learned to love a child before calling her a stupid little brat, she didn’t expect a warm welcome. She didn’t expect a welcome at all, and half expected Chloe to ask her to leave before she could get in more than a “Good morning.”

But of course Chloe wouldn’t do that. Chloe, no matter how badly someone had hurt her, was always civil. Never too rash. Level-headed. Qualities too few humans possessed.

“Good morning?” Chloe said as she descended the stairs. “Last I checked, didn’t you move out?”

Maze nodded. “Yeah,” she said, “I did.” She paused to take a deep breath, her eyes trained on the floor as Chloe came to stand beside the couch with her arms crossed. “I came to say goodbye.”

“That’s so thoughtful of you.”

“Listen.” Maze finally looked up at Chloe, and she lost her train of thought for just a fraction of a second as she took in the quiet, beautiful anger in her expression. She only wished it weren’t directed toward her. “I know you probably don’t want to see me right now,” Maze said. “I don’t blame you. You’re just one of the few things I’ll really miss when I go home and I wanted to do this properly instead of running away like a…”

Like a human.

Maze shook her head and stood up. “Anyway,” she said, “I’m sorry. I’d say I’ll see you later, but this is more of an _adieu_ than an _au revoir_ , so…goodbye, Chloe.”

“Wait.”

Maze stopped as she brushed past Chloe on her way to the door. Chloe had her hand on her arm and gently pushed her back toward the couch.

“Come on, Decker, don’t draw this out longer than it has to be.”

“I’m not going to pretend I’m not angry with you, but something’s up. I know it is. And what’s with the _adieu_ crap?”

Maze sighed and sat back down. “I’m going home,” she said. “Not yet, but as soon as possible. I won’t be coming back, ever, and you…” She looked at Chloe’s face, at her eyes, full of concern. “You won’t ever be going where I’m going.”

“Okay,” Chloe said, sitting next to her. “I won’t ask you where that is. But why are you suddenly so desperate to get out of here?” She reached out to squeeze Maze’s knee. “What’s wrong?”

Maze shook her head. “I’m not getting into this.”

“You’ve got to talk to somebody,” Chloe said. “What about Linda?”

Maze snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we’re not speaking right now,” she said.

“Then talk to me.” Chloe pulled her leg onto the couch and sat sideways to fully face her. “I may not be a therapist, but I’m your friend, and I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t get it!” Maze snapped. “You never will. You _can’t_ get it. I’m not supposed to be here, Chloe. I’m not supposed to be a _good friend_. I’m not supposed to have feelings at all, and they’re getting thicker and muddier every damn day. I wasn’t built for this and I don’t even know why I’m trying to explain it to you—do you even care? Nobody else seems to, especially when I’ve pissed them off.”

Chloe frowned. “Of course I care,” she said. “Maze, why do you think I’m upset? You leave with no warning and I’m just supposed to be happy about it? You’re not perfect. Nobody is. But I can’t imagine life without you and I don’t want to start.”

Maze hesitated. She wanted to argue—arguing was all she really wanted to do lately—but Chloe’s words sounded…genuine. Not like Lucifer’s. Not a postscript on her desire for somebody else.

“You sure I’m not just a babysitter to you?” she murmured.

“God, Maze, no,” Chloe said. “No, not at all. I’m so sorry if I ever made you feel that way.”

“I still can’t stay.” Maze huffed and ran a hand through her hair. She should have left after she’d said goodbye. If she was being honest with herself, she shouldn’t have come back at all. She should have known Chloe would make it that much harder to go.

Chloe nodded and looked away. “Okay,” she said. “If you’re really sure. It’s not my place to force you to stay, but…are you sure we couldn’t stay in touch?”

“I’m sure,” Maze said. “There’s just no way, or I’d…I don’t know, text you or something.”

“Why can’t you?”

Maze scraped her fingernail over the pommel of the blade in her belt. There was no excuse she could give Chloe that would satisfy her, not when she doesn’t know Hell is real. She couldn’t tell her the truth, either. Linda was bad enough; adding another human to the mix of divine knowledge only added more chaos and inevitable destruction.

“You can trust me.”

Maze chuckled, but didn’t look up. “I wish I could,” she said.

She tensed when Chloe reached toward her and swept her hair away from her face to tuck it behind her ear. “Look at me,” she said, and for the first time in her life Maze felt helpless to resist. Chloe looked back at her with such an intensity she’d never seen in the detective before. “I love you, Mazikeen.” Her voice wavered, as if she hadn’t expected herself to say the words out loud, but she didn’t take them back. “If you know one thing about me, know that you can trust me.”

The weight on Maze’s chest that had been keeping her short of breath for weeks suddenly seemed crushing, so heavy she wasn’t sure she could breathe at all. She wanted so badly to believe it, but she’d learned the hard way that no matter how safe a human makes you feel, you could never truly trust them. Still, though, she wanted to. She wanted to know that somebody up here on Earth would be there for her no matter what.

“I really don’t think you’d say that if you knew the truth,” she choked out. She quickly wiped at the sudden wetness on one of her cheeks. How humiliating.

“I promise, I would,” Chloe said. “I know you. There’s nothing you could say that would change my mind about this.”

Maze closed her eyes. Breathed in through her nose, out through her mouth, as Linda had taught her. She’d never thought in her millennia of existence that she’d be so utterly terrified to scare a human.

“Lucifer has told you he’s the devil,” Maze said. “I’ve told you I’m a demon. I know how it sounds to you, why you don’t believe us despite the things you’ve seen. I never tried to prove it myself, because that’s not what we do. We don’t reveal ourselves to humans.”

Chloe tilted her head. “Maze…”

“If you want me to trust you, you need to trust me too,” Maze said. “I can prove it. I just don’t know how you’ll react.”

“Okay,” Chloe said. “I trust you. I’m ready.”

Maze turned away from Chloe and allowed her true face to replace the one of the body she’d chosen. She took one more deep breath and turned back.

Chloe’s breath hitched, and her hand flew up to cover her mouth, and for a moment Maze thought she’d scream or run, but she didn’t. She slowly lowered her hand and lifted her gaze from the bare muscle and sinew of Maze’s face to her cloudy eyes.

“This is you?” Chloe was breathless, and her voice trembled, but she didn’t sound scared. Maze couldn’t place the tone, but she seemed almost…awed.

“Yeah,” Maze said. “This is me.”

Chloe reached out again, with both hands this time, and let her palms land softly on the sides of Maze’s face, her thumbs ghosting over her cheekbones. Maze pushed down the urge to shove her away and sat still as Chloe roamed the planes of her face for a long moment before slowly pulling back.

“I was right,” Chloe said. “This doesn’t change anything.”

Maze let out a ragged breath and changed her face back. “You still want to know me?” she said. “I’m a demon. A real demon. A torturer from Hell.”

“And you’re kind,” Chloe said. “You’re a good person, whether you believe it or not. Where you’re from…what you look like…it doesn’t change that. I—” She paused, realization setting in. “You want to go back to Hell.”

Maze chuckled. “Good catch, detective.” She nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I’ll be going back down as soon as I can convince Lucifer to take me.”

“Forever.”

Maze nodded again.

“And there’s nothing at all I could do to change your mind?”

Chloe had her hand on Maze’s knee again, gripping tighter than before. It wasn’t to comfort Maze; it was to comfort herself.

Maybe…maybe she could reconsider.

“You said you loved me.”

Chloe stayed silent for a moment. “I did,” she said. “I do. You’re my friend; I love all my friends.”

“I’ve never heard you say it,” Maze said. “Not even to Dan.”

“I don’t love Dan that way anymore.” The words were so quiet Maze barely picked them up, but it was enough. It was all she needed.

She snaked her hands over Chloe’s neck and kissed her. She was afraid for a second it was a mistake—Chloe seemed to prefer taking things slow—but then she kissed back. And, for the first time in Maze’s life, that was all. She pulled back and resisted tearing Chloe’s clothes off and gave her the space she knew she needed.

“You can’t do that and then leave,” Chloe said.

“I know,” Maze said. “I was thinking maybe I’d give Earth one more chance. You know…if I could come back and stay with my favorite human.”

“Are you asking permission to move back in?”

“Too soon?”

Chloe laughed, a sound Maze had missed terribly the past week, and shook her head. “No,” she said. “Not soon enough.”

Maze grinned and kissed Chloe again, and Chloe smiled against her lips. She curled into Maze’s side when they pulled apart and rested her head on her chest.

“Don’t tell Trixie about this, please,” Chloe said. “Not yet. Telling my kid about demons isn’t really something all those parenting books prepared me for.”

Maze chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry about that,” she said. “Trixie’s already seen my face.”

“What?” Chloe sat up and searched Maze’s face as if she expected it to be a joke. “When?”

“She wanted me to dress up for Halloween,” Maze said. “I didn’t have a costume, but I had my face. She thought it was cool.”

“I can’t believe you,” Chloe said, amused.

“But you love me?”

Chloe bit back a smile and rolled her eyes. “But I love you.”

Maze wrapped her arm around Chloe and kissed the top of her head. She surprised herself with the action, but Chloe didn’t seem fazed. Maybe this feelings thing wouldn’t always be too bad.

“I love you, too,” she whispered.


End file.
